Muscle Beach and the Dawn of Huge
On a young Arnold Schwarzenegger and the body-building culture of Venice Beach in the 1970s.
On a young Arnold Schwarzenegger and the body-building culture of Venice Beach in the 1970s.
Paul Solotaroff Men's Journal Feb 2012 25min Permalink
A former first-string tackle considers the green zone as a war zone:
Just as football has evolved in accordance with the evolving business ethic of American society, so has it evolved in accordance with the changing strategic assumptions about war. The development (or rebirth) of the T-formation in football coincided almost exactly with the development of a new era of mobility and speed in warfare best exemplified in the Blitzkrieg tactics of the German armies in Europe in 1939-40. The T-formation soon overwhelmed the “Maginot Line” mentality of traditional football, based as it was on rigid lines and massive concentrations of defensive and offensive power.
Wilcomb E. Washburn The New Republic Jul 1977 10min Permalink
On the late Angelo Dundee, who trained Muhammad Ali.
Gary Smith Sports Illustrated Nov 1987 25min Permalink
How the game gets made.
Tom Bissell Grantland Jan 2012 30min Permalink
On Clifton “Pop” Herring, the then-26-year-old high school basketball coach who famously left Jordan off the varsity squad as a sophomore.
Thomas Lake Sports Illustrated Jan 2012 30min Permalink
A travelogue of a three-month tour of Muay Thai boxing camps in Thailand. The author, 28, died in a hit-and-run shortly after returning to the U.S.
Neil Chamberlain The Classical Dec 2011 1h5min Permalink
A step-by-step proposal for fixing the broken economics of big-time college sports.
Joe Nocera New York Times Magazine Dec 2011 20min Permalink
The Vancouver riots and an unforgettable image.
Chris Ballard Sports Illustrated Dec 2011 20min Permalink
On the recovery of snowboarder Kevin Pearce, who suffered a massive brain injury five days before the 2010 Olympics.
Jonah Lehrer Outside May 2011 20min Permalink
The same forces that put his family in the slum also gave him the golf course on the other side of the wall, and the teachers and sponsors, and the strange ability to hit a ball with a club. But it still doesn't make sense. Sometimes it seems as if fate is wrestling with itself, making sure the circumstances of his birth are always conspiring to take away whatever gifts might allow him to escape it. He lives in two worlds, each one pulling away from the other. Anil is in the middle, trying to keep his balance.
Wright Thompson ESPN Dec 2011 25min Permalink
Dead of an accidental overdose at 28, Derek Boogaard rose from Western Canada’s rugged youth leagues to become on of Hockey’s most feared pugilists. Along the way, what happened to his brain?
John Branch New York Times Dec 2011 40min Permalink
Bill Russell, race, and the NBA of the 1960s.
Gilbert Rogin Sports Illustrated Nov 1963 20min Permalink
On the arrival of Formula 1 in India.
Mehboob Jeelani The Caravan Nov 2011 2h15min Permalink
On the death of a high school basketball star in New York City.
Jonathan Abrams Grantland Nov 2011 20min Permalink
A profile of Joe Paterno.
Jeanne Marie Laskas GQ Oct 2007 25min Permalink
Live from Kingston for Frazier vs. Foreman.
George Plimpton Sports Illustrated Feb 1973 15min Permalink
On champ-turned-coach Alberto Salazar and the New York City Marathon.
Jennifer Kahn New Yorker Nov 2010 20min Permalink
The Green Bay Packers are a historical, cultural, and geographical anomaly, a publicly traded corporation in a league that doesn’t allow them, an immensely profitable company whose shareholders are forbidden by the corporate bylaws to receive a penny of that profit, a franchise that has flourished despite being in the smallest market in the NFL—with a population of 102,000, it would be small for a Triple A baseball franchise.
Karl Taro Greenfeld Businessweek Oct 2011 15min Permalink
A portrait of an ailing Evel Knievel.
Pat Jordan Maxim Nov 2007 10min Permalink
He rose from poverty to fame as a marathon champion at only 23. But was his fall from a balcony outside of Nairobi murder, accident, or suicide?
Anna Clark Grantland Oct 2011 15min Permalink
On the Red Sox’s historic implosion:
Drinking beer in the Sox clubhouse is permissible. So is ordering take-out chicken and biscuits. Playing video games on one of the clubhouse’s flat-screen televisions is OK, too. But for the Sox pitching trio to do all three during games, rather than show solidarity with their teammates in the dugout, violated an unwritten rule that players support each other, especially in times of crisis.
Bob Hohler The Boston Globe Oct 2011 20min Permalink
On the backyard wrestling clubs of South Florida.
Bob Norman New Times Broward-Palm Beach Apr 2001 15min Permalink
A profile of Bob Fishman, the impresario of CBS’s NFL production crew.
Mark Bowden The Atlantic Feb 2009 20min Permalink
The original article on Billy Beane and the Oakland A’s, published a month before the release of Moneyball.
Michael Lewis New York Times Magazine Mar 2003 35min Permalink
Eight years after Moneyball, nearly every MLB front office has integrated statistical analysis into its strategic process. So where does that leave a former wunderkind like Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein?
Tom Verducci Sports Illustrated Sep 2011 20min Permalink